1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to management of peripheral equipment such as a printer, a scanner, a copier and a facsimile.
2. Related Background Art
In the past, it was possible, in the peripheral equipment such as a printer, a copier, a facsimile (FAX) and a scanner, to perform management of jobs (displaying a job list, canceling a specified job and so on) of which operation or execution is pending in the equipment from a computer connected to the equipment via a console of the equipment or a network and so on.
In addition, in the past, the peripheral equipment such as the copier and the facsimile performed user authentication, in order to perform user information management, by displaying a dialog for performing user authentication on the console and having user information inputted thereon. The user information obtained here was checked against a database of the user information managed inside the equipment so that use permission of the user was issued in the case where they coincided. Moreover, in the case where some printing was performed as a result of user operation, the number of prints was logged together with the user information obtained on a login or accumulated on a counter for each user so as to manage the number of prints for each user.
In addition, in the past, the peripheral equipment such as the printer and the copier performed, by discrete devices, management of the numbers of prints such as management of the accumulated number of prints for each user and limitation by the maximum number of prints. In this case, it was performed by providing in the equipment a counter for representing the accumulated printing, and ending printing or refusing to accept a job when this value becomes a predetermined value.